Chapter 1

“Eldenvalk Duke family daughter, Eltriede. Your crimes can no longer be concealed. As of now, I am excluding you from my list of fiancee candidates.”

A merciless voice declared those words.

Behind me… or rather, surrounding Eltriede in a tight formation were burly soldiers.

They were doing this not so much to protect me… but to ensure I could not escape.

“What crimes are you talking about?”

Even while thinking there was no way out, I put up a final front of bravado.

“Is my lack of magical power a crime, just like always? Is that really a crime punishable by being dragged off and chained in a dungeon?”

“No, it is not like that at all.”

The young man who answered was making his handsome features twist with a pained expression while his blonde hair shimmered brilliantly.

Even his outfit, luxuriously decorated with gold thread, looked dull and lacking its usual radiance today.

The one chastising me, shining brighter than the sun itself, was Crown Prince Kistihart.

The person I had yearned for and tried to marry by any means necessary.

“Your crime is that you used unjust methods to bring down your fellow fiancee candidates who should have been your competitors. Lady Adelina of the Count of Fwanze family lost her social credibility and was driven into a monastery. Lady Françoise of the Duke of Bonukut family is still unable to get out of bed due to injuries.”

“Both of those were caused by their own carelessness. They have nothing to do with me.”

“What about the attempted assassination of the Margrave of Celine’s daughter?”

At that pointed remark, I lost my counterargument and gasped.

Until now, I had left no evidence and everything had gone smoothly. I had only slipped up this time.

With the scene caught like this, the objects that could serve as evidence were also seized by the other side.

Even though my mind tried to deny it, I already knew it hopelessly well.

Everything was already over.

“It is true that until past cases, even when there were suspicions, there was no decisive evidence. Because of that, we could not thoroughly pursue them. But do not get too carried away just because of that. If you act suspicious to this extent, we will make appropriate preparations on our side. It means you jumped into the trap of your own accord.”

“A trap, you say… For someone who is practically the future king to resort to such petty measures…”

At that moment, I decisively realized in my consciousness that it was truly over.

Some latch inside me came undone.

“I think I have the right to ask why you did something like this.”

“Separately, do you understand even without me asking?”

With no more emotional restraints, I glared straight at him.

From the etiquette of the nobility, directly staring at the crown prince without permission was the height of discourtesy. But none of that mattered anymore.

That was because I was no longer an aristocrat, but merely a criminal deserving of hatred.

But who was the one who drove me to become a criminal?

Do you intend to claim that I alone was entirely at fault?

“If I had not done even this, I would never have been able to become your wife. For someone like me, who was mocked for having no magic, there was no other way to be chosen by you except to eliminate all the other young ladies who possessed magic.”

“Did you want to become my wife that badly? I do not believe the position of crown princess has enough value to shed other people’s blood.”

“That would have been true if I had neither magical power nor status. But it is different. I was born into a duke family and others despite having no magic. That is why I had to prove my own value!”

I shouted.

Ah, how pitiful my own body was.

Despite not having any magical power, I was born as the eldest daughter of the Eldenvalk Duke family, one of the foremost high-ranking noble houses in the country.

“You princes have no idea how I had to feel about being despised by everyone because of that! Especially crown princes who have been blessed with everything since birth!!”

“Were you planning to marry someone like that?”

“Yes, that is right! Even if I did not love you at all, I was interested in the position of crown princess!”

When I said that much, Prince Kistihart turned his face away with a pained look and then waved his hand.

As if shooing away a dog.

In response to that, the surrounding soldiers grabbed hold of me.

“Let go of me, you rude wretches!!”

However, there was no one left who would listen to what I had to say.

The dignity I had managed to maintain as a duke’s daughter was blown away without a trace, and I was dragged off as a mere criminal.

In effect, my existence as an aristocrat probably met its end at that very moment.

My life as the duke’s daughter Eltriede was coming to an end.

No, in reality, it had ended much, much earlier. Perhaps I was just being confronted with it now in a way that I could no longer avert my gaze no matter how much I struggled.

Ever since the time I found out I had no magic.

My life had ended long ago.

Any aristocrat in this country possessed magical power.

It apparently began a long time ago when our country of Spiritual Kingdom was founded and the first king was blessed by the divine spirits.

Therefore, everyone belonging to the royal bloodline of this country could use magic, and the aristocrats who were granted a share of that lineage could also use magic.

An exception was born among them.

That was me, Eltriede.

Even though I was born as the daughter of the Duke of Eldenvalk, who possessed a particularly ancient history even within this country, I could not use magic.

I lacked the magical power that served as the source for using magic.

Because of that, I had lived my whole life being looked down upon.

A defective product who could not use magic. A fake who did not carry noble blood.

Because I was born, my parents’ relationship soured, and by the time I was old enough to understand things, it had completely cooled.

My mother was suspected of infidelity, and rumors spread that she might have conceived a child with a commoner who was not an aristocrat. That was why the child born to her had no magic.

I myself had been taunted as a “pig’s child” by children of the same age.

If I could not use magic, I could not possibly be a noble’s child; I must be a child born from a pig.

Although the adults never hurled direct abuse at me, cold gazes were always directed my way.

“Why are you here?” and “You do not belong here,” those looks seemed to say.

I had rebelled against that abuse and cold treatment.

I lived as if to argue back that I too possessed the qualifications of nobility and was born blessed with noble blood.

I proactively participated in high society which I should have properly avoided, and actively attended tea parties and evening gatherings without listening to my parents trying to stop me.

And at every destination, I was made into the laughingstock.

It was amidst all of that when the selection process for Prince Kistihart’s bride took place.

I jumped at this opportunity.

If I was chosen as the crown princess, no one would call me a defective product ever again.

It was the greatest opportunity to prove that I was a child of the nobility and inherited a high-born lineage.

That was why I put myself forward as a fiancee candidate.

My parents tried to stop me as expected, but I pushed past their opposition and participated.

Noble nobility was equivalent to the strength of magical power.

Precisely for that reason, the possibility of someone like me with no magic grasping the position of crown princess was one in ten thousand.

While everyone sneered that it was impossible, I continued running desperately toward my goal.

But in the end, the only methods available to someone who fell significantly short in a single aspect were dirty ones.

For me to become the crown princess, I had to compete with the numerous young ladies who similarly desired the position of the prince’s partner and prove that I was the most exceptional.

All of those young ladies were talented spellcasters.

In this country where noble pride was tied to magical excellence, it would be an impossible feat even if the heavens turned upside down for someone like me with no magic to surpass them.

Therefore, the only way for me to win was through ruthless methods.

I deceived, framed, and sometimes even targeted the lives of the young ladies who likewise sought the seat of the crown princess.

I got my hands dirty with things that could clearly be called crimes, which were brought out into the open and caused me to be captured by the prince’s own hands.

That was the event that just transpired.

Conspiring plots to knock down rival young ladies and even hiring thugs.

Because of that, there were young ladies who sustained severe injuries.

My crimes were brought out into the light of day and decided for public trial.

My execution was decided immediately.

Ordinarily, no matter what crime was committed, when a precious duke’s daughter was the defendant, handling things as quietly as possible—such as lifelong confinement in a monastery—was the market rate.

Even so, I could not help but feel that the execution verdict being handed down so swiftly had something to do with the fact that I had no magic.

During the few days leading up to the execution, the solitary cell I was confined in was dark, damp, and identical to the ones used for commoners.

Even though I had committed a crime, it was completely different from the special ones meant for nobility.

On the day before the execution, my father came to visit.

My mother was not there. Perhaps she did not even want to see the face of a daughter who had exposed such ugliness.

My father, too, shed tears in front of me.

If only I had not been born, two people who were ordinary, proper nobles would not have had to suffer this much.

What had gone wrong?

Was it that I was not born with magical power, or was it that being born at all was a mistake?

Without finding an answer, the day of execution arrived. Dragged out before the crowds, I was not even allowed to die a proud death as an aristocrat, and I breathed my last after having my neck severed by an axe.

I ended there, and yet began again.